What Do I Call You?
by sjohn2999
Summary: Dick's new hero persona causes Wally some unforseen problems.


**A/N**: **Just a short story about Wally's reaction to Dick's new hero name. I own none of the characters.**

What Do I Call You?

Dick Grayson, newly christened Nightwing, sat at his laptop in an empty and secluded room of the Mountain glaring at animated versions of himself that refused to turn green. He had been sitting here for the better part of 3 hours attempting to hack into the Watchtower's server, but his virus wasn't working the way it should have been. He tapped a few keys experimentally, but Cartoon Nightwing just grinned cheekily back at him, even having the audacity to cackle. Dick didn't understand it. He had no problem hacking the Watchtower the other day; it had taken him about 10 minutes to program the zeta-tubes to flash rainbow instead of white.

His current mission was to hack the cafeteria menu and replace all the apple pie days with Jell-o. Admittedly, his recent Watchtower hacking had been basic and childish, but this was just meant to be a practice exercise to keep up his skills. Frustratingly, what had started out as a simple game had morphed into a full-scale cyber battle, one that Dick would have to admit he was losing. He was hardly even achieving the status of a worthy opponent. Who knew the cafeteria menu would be so well fortified?

Dick was contemplating throwing the laptop at the wall to see if it would do any good, when Wally sped into the room, sliding slightly as he came to a stop right in front of Dick.

Dick didn't even acknowledge his friend's presence, but continued to tap irritably on his keyboard, trying every hacking combination he knew. Unperturbed, Wally sat down cross-legged on the table in front of Dick and stared at him unblinkingly.

Normally, Dick would have ignored Wally completely, taking pleasure in seeing how long Wally could last in silence, but his frustration was nearing breaking point. Having Wally distracting him from his task was not going to fly. Deciding to skip the "niceties," Dick looked up from his screen as another set of Nightwings stubbornly stayed red and said emotionlessly, "What."

Choosing to ignore Dick's tone, Wally got straight to the point, "What do I call you?"

Dick's facial expression did not change. He just stared at Wally for a minute before repeating, "What?"

Not put off by Dick's lack of enthusiasm, Wally leaned forward, put his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands, and explained: "Well, as you know, you are no longer Robin-"

"I hadn't noticed," Dick deadpanned.

"-You've broken out from under Batman's overprotective wing and forged a new identity. Behold the fearless Nightwing, terror of Blüdhaven!" Wally struck a noble and dramatic pose that looked off into a blank corner of the room as if he were looking off a ship into the distance. Turning back to Dick, who was still staring at him blankly, he continued, "Congrats and all that jazz, but you really should have thought of me before you changed your name."

Still not exactly seeing the problem, Dick asked, "Why?"

Wally hopped off the table, threw his hands in the air and exclaimed, "I don't know what to call you! I can't call you 'Rob,' obviously, because that's no longer relevant. You're not 'Robin' anymore, so that just wouldn't make sense."

"I don't think that's ever stopped you before," Dick mumbled under his breath as he tapped a few more keys, once again getting red. "This may be too obvious of an answer, but what about calling me 'Nightwing?'"  
Wally scoffed, "'_Nightwing._' I can't call you Nightwing. It's too long. It doesn't even shorten nicely to 'NW' like 'Kid Flash' does to 'KF.' 'NW' has no ring to it. You really should have consulted me about the name change." He threw himself on the couch next to Dick and sighed, "I mean, I'm great a nicknames, I have one for practically everyone, but you've given me nothing to work with! Everything I think of either sounds stupid or is longer than 'Nightwing!' And we both know the D-word is off limits…" He trailed off and ran his fingers through his hair.

Seeing how seriously Wally was taking this, Dick cracked a smile and apologized, "Sorry, man. I didn't realize it would cause you so much trouble. What do you have so far?" Dick put his laptop on the table and gave Wally his full attention.

Propping his head up on the armrest, Wally began to tick potential nicknames off on his fingers. "Well, truthfully, nothing good. I tried all the basics, like shortening each part. So I got 'Nighty,' but that just sounds weird and creepy," Dick nodded a fervent assent as Wally continued, "Then there was 'Wingy,' but that sounds like something Supey would name a pet bird."

" After naming the first one 'Bird,' of course."

"Of course." Wally thought for a moment, "'N-Wing' was a decent possibility…"

Dick shook his head, "Nah, too… eh…"

That may not make sense to anyone else, but Wally got it, "Yeah."

"How about… 'N-man?'"

Wally thought about it, then grimaced and shook his head. They were silent for a few minutes. "The best I came up with was 'Wing-Man.'"

Dick sucked air through his teeth to express his disapproval. "No. That sounds like I'm some sort of Dating Doctor. Not really what I was going for… How about-"

At that moment, Batgirl leaned around the doorframe saying, "Hey, Wing-Nut, don't bother with the cafeteria menu. Batman had me upgrade the system yesterday, and we both know you don't have the skill to hack my stuff, so…" she grinned at Dick, winked, and left laughing.

Dick snarled, grabbed his discarded laptop and began typing ferociously, muttering something that sounded oddly like, "Challenge accepted."

Next to him, Dick could practically feel Wally mouthing "Wing-Nut" contemplatively.

"Don't even think about it," Dick growled at him. Wally laughed, then leaned over to watch the hacking attempt.

A good half an hour later, the "Access Denied" box was still stubbornly in place, and the cackling from the animated Nightwings was getting progressively louder. Banging his head on the keyboard, Dick groaned. Watching with amusement, Wally inquired, "You gonna let her get away with this?"

Clenching his jaw in anger and determination, Dick closed his laptop, stood up, and walked purposefully toward the door, "Nope, I'm gonna break into her room and find something, anything that will help me with this."

"A little B&E. Subtle," Wally said, following Dick out the door. "That's the spirit, Wing-Nut."

"Shut up."

**Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think!**


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